Maranacook senior Luca DeAngelis won both the Class B Freestyle and Classical races at Titcomb Mtn, capping off a fantastic season. Luca is also the KVAC Nordic Skier of the 
Year. We caught up with Luca and asked him about his goals and successes.
1) What were your preparations leading up to the state meet?
I kept with pretty normal training just slightly lighter. I didn’t feel amazing at our conference races so I knew I had 10 days to feel sharp again. That being said I just rested a lot and put in more light speeds in the week before. Generally I kept my routine pretty similar to what I had been doing all season.
2) How did you deal with the pressure and emotions that come along with competing in a state meet?
Each year I’ve been able control my nerves a little better. I expect to be nervous the night before but I just tried to relax with my team and listen to music. On race day I definitely felt a lot of pressure, especially for the skate race, but I just reminded myself to ski with confidence. I knew if I skied relaxed and confident I would be able to accomplish my goals.
3) What is your favorite thing about ski racing?
I really enjoy the pain part. I’ve gotten a lot better at pushing my limits this year in racing. I love when I get the point where I just tune everything out and I’m in this zone. The more pain I’m in during the race is usually correlated to my happiness after the race.
4) Coming into the season, what were your goals and did you achieve them?
I really wanted to win both state and conference titles and I did accomplish those goals. I had other goals in order to accomplish those results based goals. In past years I had tended to be super intense about sticking to my training plan and as a result I was sick and injured often. This year I never worried about training hours during January and February. I really focused on training less, training smarter and listening to my body. As a result I had a much more successful and fun season.
5) You won both the freestyle and classical titles: what do you contribute this success to?
I have amazing support crew. My family always does what every they can do to help me. My dad is always shuttling me around training and dealing with my equipment and my mom is always ready to help me find lost spandex and pack my lunch on race mornings. They really support all the craziness of ski training. Additionally, my brother started writing and consulting with me on my training plans and he really helped me work training smarter. I’ve skied since I was a toddler so I think I’ve had decent technique since I was a freshmen but this year the physical and mental aspect all combined with my technique much better than they had in the past. In general, I am lucky to have the amazing parents and coaches at Maranacook taking care of me and my teammates making me laugh before races.